The present invention relates to a connecting member and a connecting structure that connects a first member to a second member.
Conventionally, fastening screws have been used for simply fastening and fixing members to each other in a variety of fields. For example, when a male threaded portion of a fastening screw and a female threaded portion of a member are relatively coupled to each other, various techniques for preventing the fastening screw from gradually loosening after being coupled have been proposed (e.g. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 1989-176810).
Though a connecting structure in which a first member is connected to a second member using such a fastening screw has been used, such a connecting structure may get wet in the rain or be dropped into water in a case where it is used in a cellular phone or the like. Therefore, waterproof is required for the connecting structure in that case.
For example, as a method for preventing water from infiltrating from a connecting portion of a fastening screw to the inside thereof due to an external water pressure, a water infiltration prevention method of pressingly installing an O-ring made of rubber is generally used. However, since there is a need for an exclusively made rubber O-ring, the number of parts increases accordingly and thus it may cause cost increase. In addition, it takes much time and labor for assembling the rubber O-ring to the connecting portion of the fastening screw, which leads to hindrance to a reduction in the assembling time.
The present invention is conceived in view of such circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a connecting member and a connecting structure which are capable of improving waterproof performance with a simple structure, and capable of a reduction in the number of parts and a reduction in the connecting operation time.